Punk in Love
by fixati0ns
Summary: "This girl was much more than chrome. She was dirtier than chrome. She was metal, grimy, rusty, angry, shiny metal, through and through." Nux/Capable.


Nux had been waiting for this for the past month. Immortan Joe and the War Boys were finally coming to his hometown, playing the final stop of his tour at The Citadel in downtown, and Nux was about ready to burst from excitement.

Slit had been talking about it all day, he was even more stoked since he'd been a fan longer than Nux. This was going to be the show of their lifetime.

The Citadel was the only punk rock venue in town, it was gross and gritty and smelly and you were always weary about using their bathrooms but it was the highlight of Nux's week to go there every Friday to hear new bands. They were a small place so nobody as big as Immortan Joe ever played there, but he was from their shitty little town so this was a big deal.

"He's gonna fuckin' shred, mate!" Slit says while they fight their way to the front of the bar. "I'm pretty sure I'm never gonna feel this chrome for the rest of my life."

Nux nods excitedly in agreement. "I heard that at his last show he bit some guy's ear off Mike Tyson style!"

"I heard that in Vancouver he commandeered the venue and got the crowd to riot in the streets! Some thousand people got tear gassed and arrested!"

"That's so fuckin' shine!" They clink their beers together just as a voice interrupts them.

"You guys know that Immortan Joe is like, the world's biggest asshole, right?" Pipes up some redheaded girl who now appeared beside Nux, managing to stare them down in amusement while slamming back two consecutive shots of what looked like whiskey. "And the only true stories about him are the ones where he treats women like shit."

"'Scuse me, but where do you get off talking shit 'bout our God?" Slit practically growls at the girl, who is actually really pretty. Her hair is so bright red he wonders if it's natural or not. He deems her Firebird in his mind.

Firebird narrows her eyes in challenge. "Your God? _Seriously_? That's pathetic. Boys like you shouldn't look up to a self righteous prick like him."

"Ugh, let me guess, you're one of those whiny feminists? Immortan Joe has warned us 'bout the likes of you…"

At this, Nux interjects, smacking Slit in the back of his thick skull. "Don't be a dick, without feminism punk culture would be nothing but a bunch of fuckboys complaining about the establishment and conformity. You know who founded the establishment, Slit? The patriarchy."

Slit looks discouraged by the fact that his boy isn't sticking up for him on this, but Nux isn't going to pretend like Slit is in the right. Plus, the Firebird gives him a nod of respect, her eyes appreciative. He smiles shyly back to her.

"Riot Grrrl punk is real shine." He says to her out of nowhere, he's just rambling at this point. She probably doesn't know what he's talking about. "Bikini Kill is legendary. Sorry for my ignorant friend's ignorant comment."

Slit's about to say something crude when Firebird laughs lightly and winks at him. "It happens. I'm a woman, this isn't the first time today I've experienced ignorance. At least there's one sensible War Boy to back me up."

"Why'd you even come to the show if you're gonna disrespect? You a bandwagoner? I'll bet you don't even know a single song of his!" If Slit weren't about to tear this girl apart, Nux would probably start hitting on her with the full force Nux charm. But he's gotta side with Slit on this one. While he is captivated by her, this girl's probably never even listened to Immortan. Shinies like her don't care for that type of sound. She's probably here with her boyfriend or something. "Who are you anyway, some slighted groupie?"

The girl smirks, taking four shots between her slender fingers. Nux is impressed and a little scared, are all those for her?

"Joe fuckin' wishes."

With that, she turns away and disappears into the crowd just as the opener starts tuning up on stage.

"Oh she's definitely a groupie. Whatever. Hey, who's the opener again? They any good?" Slit asks, chugging down the rest of his beer and ordering another.

"Um, some chick band I think." He strains his neck to see over the crowd and yep, three of them are setting up. They're all real lookers too, Nux is interested in seeing how they play out with the crowd. Not that ladies can't shred as good as the next guy, but these girls look too indie rock for this show, he's almost scared for them.

All these assumptions come to a screeching halt when Firebird gets up on stage and hands each girl a shot, then steps up to the mic.

"This goes out to our sister Angharad, who's busy giving birth to our sixth member right now." They all hold their shots up in honor and toss them back, barely flinching at the burn of the alcohol. Firebird's face twists into a snarl, and with a mighty roar she yells "WE ARE THE FURY ROAD." The crowd goes wild as they smash their shot glasses on the ground, before launching into what Nux could only describe as absolute chaos.

It was fucking mad, in the loveliest sense. Like watching a car wreck in slow motion. It was art, if art could scream bloody murder.

In the first song alone they managed to cause such a racket, three guys were escorted past Nux with bloodied faces and black eyes. He stares at the girls in awe.

Their bassist was this skinny little pale blonde girl who looked frail at first, but she had fingers that ripped up a bass like nobody's business, they just flew across the frets.

The drummer must've been the reason behind the band's name, because she plays with the most fury, abusing those drums like they personally wronged her. Her pounding requires replacement drumsticks for nearly every song.

The solo guitarist is the youngest looking, but she's rad as hell. She looks like Pocahontas but prettier. Her guitar is so chrome-No literally, it's made of chrome, at least he thinks it is. Her solos bite into him, she's playing too fast, too furious, and it's so impressive. She's got her tongue sticking out like she's Gene Simmons, and you can just tell she's having so much fun. At one point she takes out a tiny bottle of superglue and glues her cut up fingertips back together. So metal.

And then there was Firebird. She is some frontwoman.

Nux was speechless. Absolutely fuckin' speechless.

This girl was much more than chrome. She was dirtier than chrome. She was metal, grimy, rusty, angry, shiny metal, through and through.

Nux has to internally tell himself that this isn't love. He's never been in love, but he's pretty sure this is what it feels like.

Firebird is up there just tearing the place up, she's wild and free with her own cherry red axe and her fingers are bleeding like the other girl's but she doesn't care, she's screeching like a banshee. She sounds like metal was born in her throat, like it scratches and scrapes her pipes all up so she can have that rusty, nails-on-chalkboard quality in her voice that is oh-so hard to perfect.

He breaks his trance to look around at the crowd for a hot second, and everybody else seems just as captivated as him. Even Slit is into it, he's slam dancing away with just as much enthusiasm as he would for Immortan Joe.

The rest of their set is sweat and blood and grit and dirt and pure, unadulterated, punk-ass rock. They make noise about things like objectification and empowerment. At one point some slime at the front tries to climb onto the stage and grab Firebird, but she crunches his hand beneath her Docs before he could get too close. The guy went down like four flat tires.

For their final song they get the whole crowd to chant "WE ARE NOT THINGS" while the little drummer girl plays like they're going into battle. The others put their axes down to help Firebird set up a fucking effigy in the form of a person on stage. She spray paints "OPPRESSION" on it in bright red before dousing it in vodka and lighting it up. Everybody goes fucking crazy, including Nux and Slit, who are now so close to the stage they can feel the heat of the fire.

Roadies come out and hand them fire extinguishers just as Firebird gets back on the mic and says, "The fire of oppression can only be put out by those brave enough to fight for their rights! To stand up and say something! Never settle, never compromise!"

They extinguish the effigy and even the crowd, turning the joint into a huge foam party. They're laughing, genuinely having fun, and definitely not giving a fuck that the stage'll be fucked up for Immortan.

These girls pretty much changed Nux's life in that one seven song set. Immortan Joe must be something stellar to follow an act like that.

And he was stellar, absolutely cosmic. Coma-Doof played like he was on fire, Slit almost blacked out for a minute because it was just so fucking righteous. But Nux's lasting impression of the night will always be The Fury Road. Those girls tore shit up, hardcore. They stole the show, no matter how powerful and crazed and high octane Immortan had been.

In the middle of his set Nux wondered if the things Firebird had said were really true. He'd have to Google it later. One thing he noticed during Immortan was how different the content of his songs were in comparison to The Fury Road's. Immortan Joe talked about causing pain and going into battle and riding eternal in Valhalla. He lusted for violence and blood, killing and taking and conquering. The girls before him had talked about overcoming fears and brutality and oppression. They talked about saying fuck you to anything that makes you feel small. They inspired Nux, whereas Immortan just made him a bloodthirsty animal.

At the end of the show Nux and Slit were drenched in sweat and a wee bit of blood. Slit had gotten a black eye in the pit, but he thought it made him look tough so it was okay.

On the way out of the venue Slit mentioned that he needed to piss so they headed into the alleyway instead of attempting the treacherous bathrooms in The Citadel. In the alley they noticed the girls of The Fury Road loading their gear into a van, laughing and hollering, still feeling the adrenaline from the show Nux bets.

"'Ey let's go chat 'em up, yeah?" Slit is pretty drunk, slurring and stumbling toward them.

"Sure." Nux follows, excited at the prospect of talking to the Firebird again.

She's smoking a cigarette with the drummer when he approaches, the other two are in some kind of punching contest, giggling and slugging each other so hard Nux even winces a little.

"Well if it isn't fuckboy and his handsome friend." Firebird grins at him and he's probably blushing a little because Jesus, she just called him handsome. "How'd you like the show?"

"Holy balls, you girls ripped that place a new one!" Slit enthusiastically throws his arms in the air, totally schlozzed at this point. "I've never seen anything like it! I definitely take back the shit I gave you earlier, Red."

"I'm glad, does this mean we're friends now?" She says it to Slit but stares directly into Nux's eyes, eyebrow cocked and a glint in her gaze.

Nux nearly creams his jeans.

 _Fuck she's so hot._

Firebird introduces them to everyone. The other girls, Toast, Cheedo, and Dag are all just as charming and sweaty and beautiful as their frontwoman, who he learns is named Capable.

 _What a fitting name_ , he thinks.

"So you boys from here?" Cheedo asks, her voice much more soft and girlish than he expected. The guys nod. "What's there to do? We have some time to kill before we go see Angharad in the hospital."

"Who's Angharad?" Nux asks.

"Our founder basically. Plays every instrument on this planet. Our set is supposed to have bagpipes, banjo, glockenspiel, and even saxophone at one point or another." Toast boasts.

Dag snickers. "Yeah but that was before our splendid Angharad got herself knocked up with a little demon sprog."

"Christ, you girls are real deal." Slit remarks, shocked. "To be honest there ain't much around here."

"It's pretty much a wasteland." Nux adds. "Unless you like racing cars and getting shitfaced in the desert."

"I've had yet to get shitfaced in the desert." Dag says. "Haven't crossed that off my boozing bucketlist yet."

"And we grew up around car freaks! Driving's our sport of choice besides perpetuating anarchy." Toast says with her cigarette hanging out of her lips.

"Well you're in luck, m'ladies, because you've come to the right place." Nux's gaze lands on Capable, who's still staring him down with those beautiful eyes. "Y'know, if you ain't too tired. Y'really gave that crowd a beatdown."

"Sleep is for the dead." Firebird claims, crushing her cigarette beneath her boot. "We're up for anything."

The six of them pile into Nux's souped up truck (the War Chariot he calls it) and decide to go raise all kinds of hell in the desert on the outskirts of town. He does some donuts in the sand once they're out far enough, just because he feels like showing off, and the girls love it. Nux's car was littered with all sorts of junk, but with a little digging around the girls in the back managed to find half a fifth of whiskey, a large flask of gin, fireworks, a bottle of kerosine, and his old textbooks from when he took engineering.

"Drunk desert bonfire!" Dag screams in excitement.

And it was indeed.

Cheedo brought her guitar and was plucking away while Slit danced around the fire with Toast and Dag, occasionally setting off some fireworks. Capable and Nux were sitting in the bed of the truck, sharing a cigarette and laughing.

"So if you guys hate Immortan so much why'd you tour with him?" Nux asks her.

"Well he wasn't all bad at first. He was pretty nice, albeit a little... Gropey. Then he just got downright rude. Started treating us and his crew like property. That's not fuckin' right at all." Capable's face twists in disgust.

"Then why did you stay?"

"A gig is a gig." Capable sighed, turning to look him straight in the eye. Their faces were a lot closer than Nux had anticipated but he had no desire to move away. "We've poured everything we have into our music, Nux, and we don't want to be openers forever. Gotta crack a couple eggs to make an omelet, right?"

"Yeah that makes sense." He breathes out the smoke, handing the little stick back to her. "Genuinely, I've never seen anything like you guys. You just... You radiated power. It was fuckin' sick."

Her responding smile is delightful. "Thank you Nux. That means a lot. It's been a tough road, y'know, trying to prove ourselves and whatnot."

"Well you did it. I'd even dare to say you outshined the Immortan."

"You'd dare undermine the greatness of the Immortan Joe?!" She laughs. "For a pack of feeble women?! You're a disgrace to the cult of the V8!"

He sputters laugh as she rises to her knees and does her best Joe impression, and he realizes he's having the most fun he's ever had. He really didn't want this night to end.

It eventually does though. At five in the morning Cheedo gets a call and lets out a whoop of joy.

"The wee babe is out, I repeat, Angharad's spawn is out!"

Everybody hollers in joy and Slit and Toast light off a bunch more fireworks. Capable has been lying in the back of the truck with Nux, talking about everything and anything, sprawled out on the masses of blankets he kept back there for days when work got too tiring.

It's strange because he has this weird connection with Capable that he can't really describe. They just met but he feels so comfortable with her, safe really. And she feels the same way apparently, because she has no problem lying on top of him and telling him stories about the roughness she's experienced from life, as well as ideas for new lyrics. She's so smart, real poetic and eloquent.

She was practically curled around him. He reveled in the feeling of having her pressed up against his side, her arm wrapped across his chest comfortably. He has zero clue how they ended up like this but he's not complaining. He's been smiling for about four consecutive hours now so this really is shaping up to be one of the top five best nights of his life.

He refuses to believe that there's a world outside this little truck bed cocoon of blankets and scrap metal and Capable. So it's real disappointing when Capable peels herself away from him and starts to hop off the truck. He scrambles to sit up and face her.

"S-so I guess I should take you guys back to your van?"

She steps between his legs which are hanging off the tailgate and cups his face in her hands. Her fingertips are rough, cut up from shredding guitar, but her palms are relatively gentle.

"I had a really good time with you tonight Nux." She whispers. "I'm not really sure if I want this to end."

"Me either." He whispers back, their foreheads nearly touching.

The corner of her mouth quirks up and she watches him through hooded eyes as she leans forward to press a kiss to his dry lips. Her mouth is just as soft as he thought it'd be, so he leans into it, even brushing his tongue against her bottom lip.

The sound of Toast's yelling breaks them apart. "Let's get a move on Cape, we got a sprog to welcome!"

Capable smiles at Nux and he kisses her forehead. "Can I at least call you sometime? I'm sure it gets lonely on the road." He spies the girls dogpiling Slit behind Capable. "Well maybe not lonely, but you probably get bored."

She shakes her head. "Tour's over, time for us to go home. Actually, we live about two hours away from here..." She says suggestively.

"Oh do you?"

"Yep." She says, popping the p. "Which isn't too bad of a drive."

"No not at all..." A slow grin grows on his face.

"So..."

"So..."

"I definitely get bored back home. If you catch my drift."

"Oh I'm catchin' all kinds of things from you."

She slaps his arm lightly and they're still smiling goofily at each other.

"Seriously though, I uh, wouldn't mind seeing you again." She threads her fingers through his. "You're a real cool guy. I haven't been around any of those in quite a while."

"You should know what you're getting yourself into. I can be pretty annoying."

She shrugs. "I'll take my chances."

She sits shotgun on the way back into town, their hands clasped together on top of the gear shift. When he drops them back at their van he leans out the window and kisses her one more time. She tells him she'll call when they get back to Greenplace. He tells her he'll be waiting.

Two weeks later he finds himself driving east, faster than usual. He watches the desert becoming smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror as he speeds toward his punk rock girl, his new adventure.

He turns up the stereo and lets The Fury Road take him to places he's never dreamed of before.


End file.
